I just got off the phone with tech support at Skytech Gaming. I ended up downloading an app to my phone that gave me a code that allowed him to see through my phone’s camera. As we were talking, the computer restarted it’s loop again, and I told him what had been going on.
As we went through the prompts, he said he was looking for logging into the internet, and that was the one thing that has never been part of the loop.
Long story short, by the end of the call, he very apologetically told me that we will have to reinstall Windows. Something went wrong in the start up and this installation got corrupted.
Which means we either hook up to another computer or get a recovery thumb drive.
*sigh*
One of the things that came with the paperwork in the box was a quality control check certificate.

The date on that is August 2, 2023. So as of then, the computer was fine.
What a pain. At least it’s a relatively easy fix, though. I’m just not sure if I want to hook up to another computer, or just get a recovery thumb drive. I like the idea of having the thumb drive. Smaller and more convenient. I’m going to have several hours after dropping the cats off at the vet tomorrow morning, so I could probably find one.
We shall see.
Not at all the sort of problem I would have anticipated!
Having said that, I can add that customer service was good and very prompt. There wasn’t much he could do over the phone, but he could at least give me a solution. With that, at least, I am happy.
I love technology, but my goodness, it doesn’t take much to mess it up!
The Re-Farmer

A Recovery thumb drive needs a valid, functional copy of windows on a computer to set up the recovery file structure. If the company isn’t going to ship you or find a way for you to download a new copy of Windows, you’re stuck with a paperweight or paying $200+ for a new copy of Windows from M$
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Oh, we have functional copies. Two on laptops. It can be done. I’m just not going to do it on my own, and my husband is in bed again. I’ll have to wait until he can tolerate being upright again.
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Well, there’s where things get sicky. I’m not certain that a recovery disc can be used on a different machine than the one that created it. Windows tech support would SEEM to answer yes, but note the double speak here: “The built in function to create a recovery drive is device specific, but you can make a bootable Windows 11 USB on any PC, that is not device specific and as well as being able to install Windows it also has a full recovery environment on the USB.”
You can’t but you can… Hmmmm.
Regardless, a recovery thumb drive is REALLY easy to make. Just click on the Windows System Tools icon in the full menu, scroll down to recovery drive, click on it and follow the prompts. It’s a bit of a slow process, but pretty easy so long as you have an 8+ gig thumb drive
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Turns out, my husband already had one. He’s working on it, now.
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OK, I found what they were talking about… This page at M$ shows how to do what they were talking about with a separate bootable copy for reinstallation
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/reinstall-windows-d8369486-3e33-7d9c-dccc-859e2b022fc7
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I’m good with technology (I’m an engineer, after all). Having said that, I do like having, for important things, a “plan B” in place. If “plan A” fails, I can go to “plan B” and continue…even if “plan B” is slower and more difficult. I don’t want to instantly go from 100% to 0%.
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Thankfully, my husband already had a recovery thumb drive. A “plan B” I never would have thought us.
Installation is in progress, but now it wants a driver that’s missing on my machine. It tells me it could be on a CD or DVD or USB drive, but no other information. This computer has only USB.
When I told my husband this, he was basically expecting it. It’s handy having an IT guy for a husband! 😆
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I think I’m more frustrated than you!!
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Oh, it just got worse, too!
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NOOOOOO!!!
Send it back before I use jedi mind powers to throw it at a wall!!
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Oh, my goodness! My husband tried one last time, and I THINK IT WORKED!!!!!!
I’m now going through the frust start up routine, and was able to log into our Starlink internet.
Fingers crossed!!
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May the force be with you!
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🩵🩵🩵
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